Ben Pon
Bernardus Marinus "Ben" Pon junior ( born December 9, 1936 in Leiden, grew up in Amersfoort ) is a Dutch businessman, former race car driver and Olympian in clay pigeon shooting.
Pon is a son of the Dutch car dealer Ben Pon senior, the Volkswagen introduced in 1949 in the United States and the VW minibus invented. The young Pon began in the 1950s on the circuit at Zandvoort to race - first in a VW Beetle with a Porsche Carrera engine.
Between 1961 ( debut at the Nürburgring ) and 1967 he raced for Porsche and took it six times part of the 24 - hour race at Le Mans. In Formula 1, Pon was not successful: In his first and only start ( also with a Porsche) on May 20, 1962 in Zandvoort he already had in the second round of an accident. His car was carried out of the Scheivlak curve and overturned several times. Pon was thrown from the vehicle, but remained virtually unharmed. He vowed never to go back in a single-seater racing.
Pon continued to work for Porsche and built the Racing Team Holland and the Dutch Racing Team with, both of which were very successful. 1968 Pon drove a Porsche 910 his last two races in the World Sportscar Championship.
As an athlete, Ben Pon was seen again at the Olympic Games: In Munich, he went to the skeet shooting for the Netherlands, finished with 187 hits but only rank 31
Besides, he had taken over his father's business; to 1981 was one of four directors of the Pon Pon Holdings. In 1992 he founded his own winery in 1997, he bought Danny McCallum Safaris, a safari company in Tanzania. In Carmel Valley (California, USA), he left the Bernardus Lodge build a luxury hotel, which opened in 1999. Pon is the owner of Bernardus Winery in Carmel and divides his time between there, in Amersfoort or in Somerset (England).